MAKING UKULELE MUSIC on a Sunday afternoon in the Rendez-Vous creperie on Main Street in Hyannis are, from left, Mary Ann Donovan of West Barnstable, Judith Jollett of Yarmouth Port and Jane Hattmer of Osterville.

"I have a dream...a song to sing"

Abba

If I were still in eighth grade and had to write an essay on "What I did this summer besides ripping the initial cost of the proposed new Hyannis Fire Station," it would go something like this. First, some background.

On a whim about three years ago I happened to glimpse a few ukuleles hanging off to one side in the display window as I passed Jack's Drum Shop on Main Street, a stone's throw from The Barnstable Patriot.

The sight triggered a shot of nostalgia, of being given a small ukulele by the departing Navy Airman whom I was replacing on my first overseas assignment in the Korean Conflict; of raising a family, working two jobs and sometimes, oddly, longing to strum the stresses of life away on a uke.

So, some 50 years later, I went into Jack’s shop and bought another ukulele, this one bigger than the first one, this one a baritone uke with a bit of a deeper voice.

At some point, Barnstable Patriot editor Ed Maroney learned of my infatuation with the uke, and thereafter never missed an opportunity to inform me of this or that uke concert or forward a uke story from a newspaper. Last winter, he copied to me an e-mail the Patriot had received from Jane Hattmer of Osterville inviting uke lovers, novice or otherwise, to join in twice-monthly Sunday afternoon uke sessions at the Rendez-Vous creperie on Main Street in Hyannis.

So what I did last summer was to meet Hattmer in the comforting lounge section of the creperie, along with Mary Ann Donovan of Barnstable, both enthusiastic novices. I play the instrument by ear, and upon learning that I harbored a lifelong wish to read music, they led me to Judith (Judy) Jollett of Yarmouth Port, a nurse practitioner at Cape Cod Internal Medicine in Hyannis and versatile musician, who has a dream and a long-term plan to achieve it.

Jollett opens her spacious and welcoming home to several groups of adult ukulele students, mostly females, who gather in a fireplaced music room for 90 minutes once a week to absorb the tempo of “by the book” music and interpret it on the ukulele. There is no charge other than Jollett’s “pay it forward” dream that some of her students will someday volunteer to share their musical knowledge with schoolchildren.

“I’m a Unitarian – and service is our prayer,” she says. “I’m one of those under the illusion we should actually do it,” she adds with an impish frown.

Jollett is accomplished on the piano and studies clarinet so she can keep up with her church’s band. In short, she has musical joie de vivre.

So I spent a chord-ial summer of note, we might say, one evening a week absorbing Jollett’s musical knowledge and marveling at a language that stokes emotions of pleasure and pain and drama like no other language can. Basic as the lessons were, the mystery of reading music that eluded me all these years was unraveling.

But why did Jollett choose the ukulele? “It’s inexpensive to buy and easy to carry anywhere. It’s fun to play. It’s soothing.” As masters of the instrument like Jake Shimabukuru prove, “The ukulele is a serious instrument, and I take it seriously,” Jollett says.

Historically, the ukulele has had its ups and downs. In the roaring ‘20s and ‘30s it was associated with the raccoon-coated college crowd plunking a few simple chords to woo the damsels. Then came Tiny Tim who, says Jollett, made a travesty of the ukulele. “It took decades for the ukulele to be appreciated again for the instrument it can be. Shimabukuru and other masters play it with a high level of virtuosity,” Jollett says.

And according to spokesmen for Jack’s Drum Shop and Charlie’s Music, both in Hyannis, ukulele sales have been on the upswing. Who is jumping on the wagon besides Jollett? Mary Ann Donovan of West Barnstable is part of Jollett’s student body. She and her husband are retired and spent 12 years in various South American countries working for the U.S. government.

Jane Hattmer is employed at an Osterville doctor’s office, is a runner, a local thespian appearing in many area theater productions and volunteers as a clown at a children’s hospital in Boston. “I figured learning to play the ukulele would help,” she says.

It’s a small sample of who is playing the ukulele these days besides the national masters and local groups, such as the popular “Tripping Lily” that prominently features the uke in some of their renditions and Tim Sweeney, host of the iconic and annual Ukulele Cabaret held in Orleans for the last five years.

What I took away from the summer lessons was the knowledge of putting what finger on what fret on what string to elicit the “C” note, for example, but more so, a sense of camaraderie and common cause in making the acquaintance of plucky Cape Codders with a soul for music.

And what better way to top it all off than by joining the Maroneys this evening to enjoy the local talents of the Ukaladies, the Steve Gregory Household, the Dolphin Ukulele Ensemble and other local performers for a plucky evening of ukulele jam beginning at 7 p.m. at the Cotuit Center for the Arts. It’s open to all who like to remember that life on Cape Cod is more hum ‘n strum than humdrum.